Will the real George Jones please stand up?
Alright, well we heard a young and most likely drunk George Jones doing his best Elvis impersonation in the last post. The things that a young artist must do for a few bucks are sometimes a little degrading. Anyway, George Jones is arguably the greatest country singer of all time. His voice is as unique and soulful as Al Green or Van Morrison. He has many imitators himself, but "Possum" is the real deal. There are hundreds of CD's available by him and few box sets, but my favorite period of George's is not as well represented as others. After cutting rockabilly and honky tonk sides for Starday, Mercury, and United Artists in the fifties and early sixties, and before he moved to Epic to record his signature overblown masterpieces of hurt with Billy Sherrill, George recorded for a label called Musicor (1965-1971), which was partially owned by his longtime manager and producer "Pappy" Daily. These are, I think, his best recordings and have yet to see a proper comprehensive collection. The first of todays mp3s come from an out of print Rounder LP from 1983. My favorite song, "Burn The Honky Tonk Down," written by his guitar player Wayne Kemp, has never been released on any CD. It's a killer 3/4 tale with sawing fiddles about a guy who works in a sawmill cutting timber to " build another honky-tonk wall", while his wife spends his his money in town carousing with the customers between those very honky tonk walls. This is the kind of song that George Jones sings better than anyone. Also, a few more tracks where that came from, a couple of my favorite Musicor singles, and some cover versions of these songs.
Please enjoy...
Download:
"Burn The Honky Tonk Down" mp3
"Where Grass Won't Grow" mp3
"Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven" mp3
"Feeling Single-Seeing Double" mp3
From Burn The Honky Tonk Down, Rounder Records, 1983.
Out of Print
Download: "Heartaches And Hangovers" mp3
Download: "Ship Of Love" mp3
********************* BONUS *********************
"Your Angel Steps Out Of Heaven" mp3
by The Flying Burrito Brothers, 1970.
available on Sleepless Nights
"Burn The Honky Tonk Down" mp3
by The Meat Puppets, 1986.
available on Out My Way
"Feeling Single Seeing Double" mp3
by Emmylou Harris And The Hot Band, 1975
live recording not commercially available
Buy George Jones music at Amazon
or at your local independently owned record store.
George Jones photograph by Lee Friedlander
from American Musicians, D.A.P. © 1998.
George is one of the true traditionalists of country music. It is getting harder and harder to hear this style in dance halls around Texas. Most dance halls have gone to the new country disco platform-ick. There's just something about waiting for the band to decide what twang masterpiece they will play next.
ReplyDeleteThanks for enhancing your blog with the songs of the past. Really enjoyed it.
muse,
ReplyDeleteit seems the new pop country ghouls of the cma and cmt have burned down the honky tonks. thanks for stopping by.
tb
Well this day has started off real good, thanks Ted. Tell that Texas guy, I'll try to get Crane Trash over there and entertain him 'old school' as soon as I can.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the cruelly unrepresented Musicor stuff from this genius. For what it's worth, "Out of Control," from the Mercury days, might be my personal fave. Why? It's utterly devoid of self-pity. The Bottle is the one calling all the shots... and that's just how it is.
ReplyDelete